Apples and the Christian and Missionary Alliance

It started with an offer of apples. Sometime in Montreal in the late 1920s, my Grandma and her sisters came home and told their mother that there was this church group that was offering apples to kids, and could they take one? My great-grandmother said yes. I don't quite know why. Having spent most of her younger years impoverished in London, England, she hated to be seen as a charity case. Maybe she was having an indulgent day. Maybe she had grown up knowing how terrible scurvy could be. Maybe she just liked apples. But for whatever reason, she said, “yes” – as long as they also went to the church's program. They were not to simply receive a handout without hearing what these people had to say.

Strictly speaking, these young ladies were not conversions for the Alliance church. They never joined that church, and they were already Christians. But in the Church of Christ at Verdun, there were very few people the age of my Grandma and her sisters. There were older people in the church whom my Grandma respected. There were many children and youth in their thriving Sunday School program whom she loved and taught. But there was no one her own age: no peers, and no real youth ministry for her age group.

My Grandma learned and grew in valuable ways in the Verdun church. It was there that she came to Christ. It was there that she began a lifetime of Sunday School teaching. It was there that she developed a pattern of throwing herself wholeheartedly into whatever service was before her. But while Grandma speaks often of Verdun, if anything she speaks even more of her time in the youth group of the Alliance Church. Despite the many years, she still remembers their names and their kindness, their songs and their evangelistic zeal. She learned to minister in Verdun, but she was ministered to by the Alliance.

We talk a lot today about evangelism: how to do it well, not corny, not pushy, not hesitant. How to be friendly, genuine, intentional, caring, and respectful. Maybe we overthink it. Maybe we just need to do something – and it doesn't have to be big. Maybe we just need to offer something – and it doesn't have to be expensive. Although I expect apples had more value in 1920s Montreal, I don't expect they had to remortgage the church building, either. Perhaps we should identify what an apple would be to the people around us, and take it from there.

One more thing: you're not a failure because people don't join your church. Those youth leaders of the Alliance church, who I am sure lamented the loss of a lovely young woman when she left their youth group, never knew this side of glory the profound impact they would have on this woman, who even after all this time speaks of them with the utmost fondness and respect. And it all started with an offer of apples.